The way links must be created, and the way they are handled by the ACTIVE CM depends on what type of site you are working with and what type of link you are creating. Below the two major aspects affecting links are whether a site is dynamic or ultimately static. From there you must identify the type of linking scenario you are trying to accomplish.
For more information on creating links for your site, see Links overview.
The following linking scenarios apply to sites that are maintained in the dynamic environment only, in other words, sites that do not get exported.
Internal link to another page within the same siteInternal link to another page within the same site
The link reference consists of a page ID only:
href="/Page10.aspx"
The link reference consists of a page ID only, as in the previous example:
href="/Page25.aspx"
The reason for the same format is that within a single installation of the ACM, pages are numbered sequentially across all sites, so there is only a single instance of each numbered page within a given ACM installation.
The link reference consists of a complete URL:
href="http://www.mycompany.com/main/Page3.aspx"
Although the page format is that same as for your site (Page3.aspx) it actually refers to the remote site's Page3 which is a completely different page than the Page3.aspx within your own ACM installation.
External link to a completely external siteExternal link to a completely external site
The link reference must consist of a complete URL:
href="http://www.mycompany.com/main/ConferenceRegistration.html"
The link is not altered by the system.
If you export your site to a static site, links are treated differently. When the web pages are exported and converted to .html pages, the system processes the links it encounters and converts them as follows:
Internal link to another page within the same siteInternal link to another page within the same site
The system converts the dynamic page name to the static site's equivalent. So if the dynamic version of the link is
href="/Page19.aspx"
this dynamic page name would get converted to the name as entered in the URL Title or the Title field in the Page Editor. For example:
href="/Latest News.html"
The link reference consists of a page ID only, as in the previous example:
href="/Page19.aspx"
The reason for the same format is that within a single installation of the ACM, pages are numbered sequentially across all sites, so there is only a single instance of each numbered page within a given ACM installation.
Again, the system converts the dynamic page name to the static site's equivalent. So if the dynamic version of the link is
href="/Page19.aspx"
this dynamic page name would get converted to the name as entered in the URL Title or the Title field in the Page Editor. For example:
href="/Latest News.html"
This is not a recommend configuration for the ACM. It is recommended that if you export one of your sites, that you export all of your sites. But in the event that you wish to link from an exported, static site to another of your sites which is not exported, you may do so using the following link format:
href="/Page19.aspx?<linkupdate=False>"
the linkupdate variable prevents the system from trying to convert the link reference to a static-site equivalent of the dynamic page.
External link to a completely external siteExternal link to a completely external site
The link reference must consist of a complete URL:
href="http://www.mycompany.com/main/ConferenceRegistration.html"
The link is not altered by the system.